Mary Boleyn | |
|---|---|
_-_Portrait_of_a_Woman_-_RCIN_402991_-_Royal_Collection.jpg) 17th-century copy of a lost original portrait by Remigius van Leemput | |
| Known for | Mistress of Henry VIII |
| Born | between 1499 and 1508 probably Blickling Hall, Norfolk |
| Died | July 1543 (aged 35–44) Rochford Hall, Essex, England |
| Buried | Unknown although assumed to be buried at Hever Castle |
| Noble family | Boleyn |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Issue | Catherine Carey, Lady Knollys Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon Edward Stafford (disputed) Anne Stafford (disputed) |
| Father | Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire |
| Mother | Elizabeth Howard |
Mary Boleyn, also known as Lady Mary,[1] (c. 1499[2] – July 1543) was the sister of English queen consort Anne Boleyn, whose family enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII.
Mary was one of the mistresses of Henry VIII for an unknown period. It has been rumoured that she bore two of the King's children, though Henry did not acknowledge either. [citation needed] Mary was also rumoured to have been a mistress of Henry VIII's rival, King Francis I of France, for some period between 1515 and 1519.[3]
Mary Boleyn was married twice: in 1520 to William Carey, and again, secretly, in 1534, to William Stafford, a soldier from a good family but with few prospects. This secret marriage to a man considered beneath her station angered King Henry VIII and her sister, Queen Anne, and resulted in Mary's banishment from the royal court. She died seven years later, having spent the remainder of her life in obscurity.
- ^ "Katherine Knollys". Westminster Abbey – Founded 960. The Dean and Chapter of Westminster. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
Katherine Knollys' tombstone in Westminster Abbey reads thus: "This Lady Knollys and the Lord Hundesdon her brother were the childeren of William Caree Esquyer, and of the Lady Mary his wiffe one of the doughters and heires to Thomas Bulleyne Erle of Wylshier [Wiltshire] and Ormond. Which Lady Mary was sister to Anne Quene of England wiffe to Kinge Henry the Eyght father and mother to Elizabeth Quene of England".
- ^ Antonia Fraser, The Wives of Henry VIII (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1992), p. 119
- ^ Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, X, no.450.